Will Bill Speak at the Convention?

[Pangloss]

Interesting point raised on Meet the Press today. NBC's Chuck Todd was talking about the convention with Tom Brokaw, and the issue of which Clinton would speak at the convention came up.

 

The Obama camp doesn't want Clintons to dominate the convention, so they only want a Clinton-named speaker on one night. Well that has to be Hillary, out of respect for her candidacy and desire for her voters (a quarter of whom currently say they'll be voting for McCain). You only typically have one headliner on an evening, so you'd undermine her by having Bill speak after her. You can have Bill introduce her, but according to Todd there's a whole history there of speaking engagements going poorly when they do that, and it could still be seen as undermining her. More likely, says Todd, we'll see Chelsea introduce her. But of course that leaves Bill out in the cold, or as Todd put it "the recipient of a tribute video". Rofl!

 

So the last President of the United States from the Democratic party, a president who enjoyed two terms in office and departed with a 60% approval rating, may not be speaking at his own party's convention. Astonishing.

 

Doesn't really mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but I think it's an interesting historical/political footnote.